Dragon Champion: Book One of the Age of Fire by E.E. Knight My rating: 3 of 5 stars First in a fantasy series that is unique due to the point of view: that of the dragon himself. It was recommended and was certainly different and interesting. The dragon’s rough-scrabble life and interaction with the species […]
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A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron My rating: 1 of 5 stars I was completely disappointed in this mess of a book from the author of another of my favorite series (Jane Austin mysteries). Yes, I allowed for a change of plot, setting, theme, and tone. I felt like I came into this
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The Sentinels: Fortunes of War by Gordon ZuckermanSent by the Publisher, Greenleaf Book Group, for reviewMy rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a political thriller with a global banking theme, set during World War II. In 1938, a group of six UC Berkeley students — rich, intelligent, multinational and attractive, of course — attempt
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The Snow Empress by Laura Joh Rowland My rating: 2 of 5 stars The 12th in the Sano Ichiro series, this was a slight departure from the series in that it takes place in far northern Japan, where Sano and Reiko’s son has been kidnapped, apparently to lure him away from the capital. The lord
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Death and the Chapman by Kate Sedley My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first of a series of historical mysteries set in fifteenth-century England and introducing Roger, a young man who quits the monastery to be a traveling salesman and discovers his talent for solving mysteries. Told in flashbacks by Roger as an old
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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a fun, quirky story of a dysfunctional English family and the 11-year-old, precocious heroine who likes to snoop and specializes in poison. The post-WWII setting was appealing and the characters were certainly entertaining. I could tell
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The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi My rating: 1 of 5 stars I was truly disappointed in this book after reading the rave reviews. The plot looked fascinating and many people obviously loved it. But once I began, I realized how bleak the story truly is. One down. The writing itself is very descriptive and
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Aztec 3. City of Spies by Simon Levack My rating: 4 of 5 stars One of my favorite series, simply because it is so different. Yaotl is a down-on-his-luck Aztec slave who is good at logistical problems and has an disfunctional, extended family. His cohorts are interesting and entertaining, in most cases, and the life-and-death
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